


Defy the Night

by snowynight



Category: Marvel
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Supernatural, First Time, M/M, Strip Tease
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-28
Updated: 2013-01-28
Packaged: 2017-11-27 06:38:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/659006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowynight/pseuds/snowynight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve and the team investigate what may be a vampire conspiracy. Then Steve discovers something unexpected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Defy the Night

Steve opened the bolt of his rifle, aimed the breech towards the lamp. Then he held the rifle by the barrel and looked down the bore to clean the brime. He took a wipe, gave it a dab of lubricating oil, and wiped down the entire metal exterior of the rifle. After he was satisfied with it, he put it back into the case, just as he did it every morning. It was a habit drilled into him before, as you never knew when you needed your faithful rifle in his previous line of work. Now that they were renegades from the previous powerful employer, it became more necessary. It also helped him calm down and be prepared. Then he went to the kitchen to make bacon, egg and coffee for breakfast.    
Later on other people joined him. Luke nodded at him before sitting down at the table. Tony was the second, yawning, and stumbled to the coffee pot to pour a cup of coffee and devoured it. Jessica looked all professional and sharp and usual. Then Peter and Logan joined them.  
  
After they finished the breakfast, they went on to have their briefing.  This time they were to infiltrate Stane International, which according to Jessica's intelligence, had a link with the vampire conspiracy they were trying to foil. "It won't be easy, considering it was a reputable munition dealer, but we'll do it," Steve said.  
  
Luke nodded. "Just like we often do."  
  
"All right. Let's get on with the job." Peter said with a smile. Steve sometimes envied Petr for his ability to remain cheerful despite whatever the world threw at them.  
  
Steve distributed the tasks.  Jessica and Peter were to be the face to get into the corporation and also to help Tony to hack into the main computer system. When they got the information, it was the time for sabotage when the intelligence was confirmed.  
  
After that, Jessica and Peter left the apartment to do their part of the job, followed by Logan. Luke went into his room. Steve suspected that he was struggling to not reach his family. He didn’t know if he should envy Luke for his steady anchor or worry that it might be a target one day. Tony switched on his computer, probably doing hacking work for fun and profit. It left him with nothing to do, so he took out a book randomly and found that it’s A People's History of the United States. Soon he was drawn into the book. “My history... describes the inspiring struggle of those who have fought slavery and racism...” What would the writer think when he knew that they had to fight vampires who tried to enslave people?  
  
It was still surreal to think that they were fighting vampires, something that should only appear in films and novels. But he had seen it with his own eyes, with their ex-employer turning against them and tried to turn them into monsters. The team escaped, and from then on they tried to fight back. Steve still shuddered to think how many things he had done unknowingly to advance the vampires’ agenda. It was his cross to bear.  
  
After he finished his book, he saw that Tony was still submersed in his computer work. He smiled. Tony was always the same. He trusted his team, but Tony had been his old friend right before that. They had a comfortable rapport between them, and Steve always felt calm in his presence. Then Tony looked up and smiled at him, “Hey, my work’s done for now. why don’t we go out for lunch? I got bored with the pizzas.”  
  
Steve had to smile back.  “Of course. If even you said that...” He knew that Tony probably want to give him an excuse to go out. It was in their interest to stay low, not attracting the enemies, but he admitted that he had a case of cabin fever coming.  
  
“Hy, I’ll let you know that I have taste,” Tony put down his computer and said.  
  
Steve went straight out of the apartment, trusting Tony to follow. “Of course, Tony, if you said that.”  
  
They bickered until they arrived at a small Japanese place for lunch. The plumb waitress brought them the menu and they placed the order with her. Steve remembered a period that Tony would just order the weirdest food just to shock him, only to be frustrated when it didn’t affect Steve. Steve didn’t have the heart to tell Tony that as a rough New York kid, he had seen all.  
  
When they were having lunch, Tony said, “Funny how our life change. Now we’re pretty much the part time saviour of humanity. We should don a costume. I can be Iron Man.”  
  
“Iron Man?”  
  
“Don’t laugh. And you can be Captain America. “  
  
“You have a very weird imagination.”  
  
“And you can draw a webcomic of all of us. Let’s call it...”  
  
“Avengers.”  
  
“See, you’re finally on the same channel with me.”  
  
“Well, when we retire, we can do that. Maybe we’ll get rich.”  
  
“Be the next Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.”  
  
“You don’t call out the King ‘s name.”  
  
They laughed, without saying that it was pretty much impossible for them to retire and get a more normal life. Probably they would die some day in this guerrilla war against impossible odds. But it was still nice to talk and relax like that. Life couldn’t be all gloom and dark.  
  
That night Steve had a dream. They were going on a routine mission. Everything was fine until it broke into hell. Blood, teeth, and shock. Then...  
Bucky. The pale face, the empty eyes looking at him.  
He worke out of his dream and found that he broke out in sweat. Knowing that he wouldn’t be able to fall back to sleep soon, he quietly sneaked out of his room and wasn’t surprised to see Tony in the living room, tinkering with something. He greeted Tony and sat by him, watching him work. When Tony put aside his project, he looked at him patiently and Steve spit out a word, “Bucky.”.  It was enough for them. Tony was among the very few people to know about Bucky. Steve was glad for Tony’s patient silence that let him deal with the past in his own way.  
  
Tony nodded and said, “I can’t sleep anyway. Why not play a card game?”  
  
“No poker. Don’t have the brain for it.”  
  
“Stealing Bundles?”  
  
Steve had to smile at the name. “All right.”  
  
Tony dealt the cards. They talked during the game, and somehow they argue about the relative merit of President Jefferson and the Chief Justice John Marshall. Tony maintained that Jefferson was smart and efficient, while Steve countered that Marshall upheld the spirit of the constitution. It was all good nature. When Steve returned to bedroom again, he felt more relaxed and soon fell into sleep.  
  
The next day Jessica sent back more information and said that they could proceed to the second stage. She got Tony in under pretense and Steve came too to the company as the backup. Things went smoothly as Jessica distracted the people to give time to Tony doing his hacking. When Tony came out again, he did a thumb up gesture and he knew that Tony had dug up gold.  
  
There was a suspicious amount of money going between Stane International and a company that Tony was able to be traced to be related to the vampires. While Stane International was a munition dealer, recently it devoted money in chemicals purchase. The trade had become very frequent in the latest three months and recorded in code, but Tony was able to break it and it mentioned a project called Code Name: Vitality. "There's also an interesting fact. Stane kept a mansion in New York. The electricity and water bill 're payed by the company and they far exceeded the normal for a rich man's love nest," Tony said.  
  
Luke said, "There 're no ways it's normal. We have dug a gold mine here."  
  
"But why inside the New York city? Won't it be easy to detect?" Peter asked.  
  
Jessica replied, "It's clever indeed, hiding a conspiracy in plain light, and also any investigators have to take into the fact that many innocent bystanders may be involved."  
  
"I see," Peter said.  
  
"Now that we know about it, we can follow the lead. Well done, everyone," Steve said. "Now we need to formulate a plan to infiltrate the mansion."  
  
"I have an idea," Jessica said. "There're regular parties held at the mansion. I think we can sneak in as guests or temporary hire, and I can handle it."  
  
"Good idea, Jessica," Steve said.  
  
After the meeting the team had their monthly movie night. It was started when they were a new team so as to bond and work more efficiently and back then the idea was met with a lot of amusement, but now it became a ritual.  Even Logan joined them grudgingly. Steve sat in his usual position by Tony, and this time it was Jessica’s turn of choosing a movie, Shaun of the Dead. Steve didn’t get all the joke, but the way that the movie clearly didn’t take it seriously was charming. After that they watched the news, which the reporter was reporting a robbery. Steve wasn’t paying all his attention at first, but then he noticed a face in the crowd. It was exactly the same as Bucky. How could it happen? Then the face disappeared and Steve told himself to calm down. It was probably a honest mistake on his side. It still made him uneasy, but he hid it.  
  
The day the they carried out the infiltration plan came, Steve found that Jessica didn’t lay out all the fact to them.. Apparently the party was a female-only affair and all of them but Jessica would probably be unable to pose as guests. “But I find the best disguise for you all!” Jessica winked at them and soon they found out what it was.  
  
“Can’t we pose as waiter or cook or something?” Peter said, his face blushing.  
Jessica said with a smile that was clearly evil to Steve’s eyes. “No, they were extremely rigorously screened. Besides, there’re no waiters, just waitress.””  
“It’s totally unfair,” Peter said. “You can enjoy the party while we have to be strippers.”  
“It’s totally worthwhile to be naked for bigger good,” Jessica countered.  “Who would have suspected the strippers?”  
Steve didn’t find it comfortable to strip in public like this, but he guessed Jessica must have a reason for doing this. “All right, we can do this.”  
Logan said, “We?”  
“It’s for the mission. Nothing big,” Tony said and didn’t show any signs of discomfort at the prospect. In fact he was grinning.  
Steve said, “Tony’s right. We have done worse,” “  
“I’m married. A married man doesn’t let other women to have a chance to slip money into his g-string,” Luke said.  
“It’ll be pity if you are left out,” Jessica said.  
“If I have to do it, you too Luke. Don’t let MJ know it though,” Peter said darkly, “Otherwise I may need to kill you all.”  
“MJ ‘s a considerate person,” Jessica said.  
Peter said, “It’s exactly because of this.”  
Finally the team agreed to it, despite Logan showing his displeasure at the prospect. Jessica also so helpfully gave them a lot of information of how to do it right, and offered to give in-depth explanation with a smirk. Steve politely rejected the offer.  
  
It was hard to prepare for the mission, Steve tried on the flashy underwear in the bathroom once - too much glitter in his opinion - and the flimsy star-spangled costume coloured blue, white and red. It seemed obscene to wear the colour like that. His stage name was now “Danny Dangler” and he had to practice the dance routine. Although he wasn’t shy with his body nor a prude, it was still a bit too exposed to be naked like that. Honestly, it gave him stage fright to think of dancing before the public. When he mentioned this to Tony, who got the name “Iron Mason” and a costume in red and gold, Tony said, “You can try dancing before me. That way you can ease into it. Just normal clothes.”  
  
Steve thought it was a good idea and told Tony so. Then when he faced the reality of stripping to Tony, he was a bit more hesitant. He looked at the wall above Tony, and tried to be sexy to slowly pull off his clothes to the music rhythm, but he just felt clumsy. Tony must saw that as he switched off the music and said, “ Why not I demonstrate once to you?”  
“Will it be too much trouble for you?”  
  
“Surely not. I have done wilder things than that. Much wilder,” Tony grinned  
  
“Thank you.”  
  
Tony started the music again, and his eyes focused on Steve, with full intensity. Then his left hand came to his shirt, slowly pulling it off when he was dancing to the music perfectly, his skin revealing inch by inch. Steve swallowed. He had seen Tony stripping many times, usually in the communal shower or the gym. But then they were too busy to get into the shower to wash off the sweat and dirt. Not like that. Tony was so beautiful, slender yet with contained strength, and Steve was fixated on him. His heart beat faster, and his throat dry, when Tony threw his shirt off. Then his hands moved down to his pants, and Tony glanced at him flirtingly. He lifted off his pants and revealed a red thong. Everything about Tony was great. The artist in Steve wanted to record it with chalk, and his body responded to it. He was mesmerized and only responded when Tony switched off the music.  
  
“Sorry, I...” Steve said, feeling his face red. It’s just not proper to ogle your friend when he just wanted to help.  
  
Tony just smiled, “Hey, I’m a good looking guy. You have the duty to be stunned by me.”  
  
The light tone made Steve relax. Clearly Tony saw this as no deal and he shouldn't be obsessed about it. “It’s very useful, Tony. I’ll practise it more.”  
  
“I’ll wait for it.”  
  
The mission night came and Steve went to the changing room, put on the costume, went out to see Tony in a small cloth of red and gold looking delectable. Steve shook his head mentally and moved his eyes off to look at the others. He must admit that the others looked great too. Jessica had a great taste.  
  
Steve wasn’t sure how his strpping went but he guessed that he didn’t do too bad because of the loud applause. When the stripping was over, Steve returned to the stage to put on his normal clothes and started his part of investigation. Following the blueprint Tony got from the computer, Steve sneaked down to the basement., avoiding the infrared camera and the security guards on the way. Then he was down there, he joined the others and started to search inside. He saw a lot of giants tubes holding some creepy creatures like monsters that came out of some myths. Then he stopped before one.  
The one inside was Bucky.  
  
What’d happened? Sure they never found the body as Bucky sunk into the depth of ocean. Now these people dared to defile his body like that. Anger rose in Steve’s heart. Then he heard sound and his mind returned to the present.  
  
The light was switched on at once and when Steve’s eyes adjusted to the light, he saw that it was Obadiah Stane, who laughed at them and said, “I knew you’re going for me. You don’t expect that, right?”  
  
Stane was guarded by a number of security guards. Steve didn’t speak and quickly went over their option. He planned to capture Stane for interrogation, but this could change. But then Stave seemed to do something and the tube holding Bucky was open. To Steve’s surprise, Bucky walked out stiffly. Stane said, “I know he’s your friend, so enjoy getting thumped by him.” while Bucky pointed a gun at them and shoot. Steve barely avoided it. He signalled the others to go after Stane while he faced Bucky. He avoided another shot and jumped on him from the side to disarm him, wrangle him to the ground, shouted, “Bucky, do you remember me?”  
  
“It’s useless,” Stane said. “He’s basically a walking dead now.”  
  
Steve couldn’t give up and shouted Bucky’s name repeatedly when they struggled on the ground. He could hear the others fighting and wanted to join them, so he had to be quick here. Perhaps because of him rushing, Bucky gained the upper hand and pushed him over. Then he said, “Steve?”  
  
“Bucky?”  
  
“What’re you doing here?”  
  
This’s no time to reconcile though, so Steve only said, “Going after Stane.” and pointed. Bucky nodded and joined Steve to fight with Stane ‘s guards. Stane seemed shocked, shouting, “No way you can...” before Bucky shot and killed him. Then Steve heard ticking sound and shouted to the others, “Get out at once!” and the others did as he said.  They barely made it out when there was an explosion.  
  
After that they were on the way back to their apartment when Bucky said, “Sorry, Steve. I’m not joining you.”  
  
“What do you mean?”  
  
“I have a lot to think about. I remember too much yet too little. Don’t get me wrong, but I need time for my own.”  
  
“All right,” Steve said. “Keep in touch. Don’t be a stranger.”  They hugged and Bucky left. .  
  
After they debriefing, Tony sat by Steve’s side when they were alone and Steve said, “You know I never expect to see Bucky alive.”  
  
“I know. He’s your best friend”  
  
“Yeah, just like you.”  
  
Tony looked shocked. Steve didn’t get it, so he repeated again, “You’re my another best friend.”  
  
Tony said nothing for awhile, then he held Steve’s hands. “Thank you.”  
  
They looked into each others’ eyes and smiled. Then Steve felt that something strange was between them and he wanted to say something, anything to break the tension, but Tony was quicker than him and held Steve’s hand to kiss it.  
  
“Tony?”  
  
“Do I interpret it wrong?” Tony didn’t look confident.  
  
“I’m just surprised.”  
  
“It’s all right if...”  
  
“It’s all right to...”  
  
They speak at the same time and laughed. Then finally Steve said, “I guess it meant we should go on a date. I can finally get you into an art museum.”  
  
“And you an auto show.”  
  
Steve smiled. It was new and probably not a good idea. But then when did it stop him?  
“Besides, I want to see you dance with your full body blush,” Tony said.  
  
Steve blushed and Tony laughed. 


End file.
